michaelwma

So, I am a longtime NYC AA Lifetime GLD (1.7M) who just took a job in PHL. I have spent a lot of time wondering what to do with my flight status and thought I'd turn to the group for help.

First some background:
- I am leaving consulting and working for a firm where I won't be traveling much for biz anymore - however, I have grown to like certain benefits while personal traveling (esp with my family of 5 on vaca)
- I am 300K miles short of Life PLT, and would like to make it. Don't know why, just would
- I only have 21k miles this year and there is no way that I am requalifying for PLT this year


My thoughts/schemes so far:
- Swear allegiance to a PHL-based airline (US, others?) ... get a comp status for PLT and just make a clean break

- Get a comp status on CO and fly out of EWR

- Stay with AA in PHL and just grind out the last 300k through credit offers, etc.

What do you all think? Anyone here in the PHL area? Help I am lost!

r415

Definitely your biggest mistake (from someone who used to live there).

EWR would be a giant pain to drive to all the time, I'd recommend getting a comp on USAir, and doing some credit card miles if you really want LT Plat. AA doesn't really fly too many flights from PHL now so, and always seems to have operational problems when they do (which is not surprising, given that it is Philadelphia), so your options are pretty limited.

gemac

It sounds to me like even if you get comped status on US, you won't be able to keep it. You could try it for a year to compare how you like it, but it seems that your choice in the long run is flying with status on AA vs. flying with no status on US. That isn't much of a choice to me.

emma dog

As someone who is PLT and moved to ATL, I went with choice 3 "grind it out with AA". I am also the low-tier on US from flying out of DCA-TPA last year and am thrilled that I've not stepped foot on a US plane in almost a year now and will be losing my status.

mmjaysee

I'd vote for Option 3 too. Stick with AA for now until you get to Lifetime PLAT. You could also ask US for a comp for 2011 and see how you like it for a flight or two. Then keep the AA citi card regardless of which airline you decide to go with until you get up to 2M miles.

Also keep in mind the phenomenon of having much higher upgrade chances when living in a non-hub city of the airline you fly (definitely less % of AA elites in PHL than NYC). I recently moved from NYC to San Francisco and have better upgrade chances since the move.

CPMaverick

Sounds like you won't be flying enough anymore to maintain status with any airline. So I would stick with AA where you'll always have status.

tfjim

I would get the status match to a *A airline immediately (US, CO, UA) and fly them as necessary. US has been selling miles so cheaply that premium and non-premium class mileage redemptions are really the way to go with them. Then I would use Citibank AA credit card churn to get me over 2MM over the next year or so. Very doable...

ScreenGuy

Seeing how you will be doing mostly personal travel, you'll find that most destinations out of PHL are cheaper on AA than US.

Depending on where you live in the Philly area, EWR could be an option but you will generally get less delays out of PHL than EWR.

Good luck with whichever option you choose.

michaelwma

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I was considering getting the status match to PLT equivalents and then "waterfalling" from one carrier to another until I got my AA in check, but I guess it may be better to just stick it out with AA.

Hard for me to do via credit card since I tend toward cash back credit cards (AMEX Plat Cash back @ 1.5%) ... now is status better than the 1.5K/yr I get back ... now, gee, that I don't know.

tfjim

Um, not just status, but 100,000 miles to spend as you wish. I know for sure that I would value 100,000 miles at least $1,500. That's a business class ticket to Europe or South America, or 4 tickets in the US or off-peak to the Caribbean, or 3 tickets to Hawaii... I could go on but you get the point. Also, over the past few months I think the value of ff redemption miles have gone up signifcantly with the elimination of last minute fees, redeposit fees, etc.

rukhbat

If you're only going to use it for a tryout flight or two, I'd hold off on requesting a match. The past couple of years US has run promos that make it pretty effortless to get to at least Silver. This year, you had to buy a ticket in May/June, which got you a 90 day Silver status trial. They can be less then helpful with matches to upper tiers, and advertise them as one time only matches so a promo is likely to be less drama all 'round.
On the PHL side, I've found US PHL-DFW on the E190 to be a pretty easy upgrade on US and the morning flight is pretty well scheduled for my AA connections (esp. TPAC).

michaelwma

Good call. I agree with this ... also great idea on the PHL-DFW connection. Isn't that a pain though across from say Term E to C?

michaelwma

Fair enough. I got the card. I caved.

rukhbat

DFW is never a problem to navigate, it's just a matter of making sure you have enough time in your connection to walk to and wait for the Skylink. Maybe not as convenient as staying entirely within the A terminal, but by no means a big deal. You should probably be padding your connection a bit anyway, regardless of carrier, when travelling ex-PHL as they have elevated ground delays to performance art.

Pedler

As a former PHL flyer I started with US Air and grew to the point where I prefered PHL-DFW-CLT on AA over PHL-CLT on US... So I strongly support option 3.

Be glad you are not traveling that much out of PHL, it is one of the worst in the country operationally, for all airlines. My biggest tip though is when leaving ex-PHL NEVER get on the plane hungry, even if your upgrade clears, you have no idea how long you may wait on the taxi way... ie. (Captain: "I was just informed that we are 60th in line to take-off.")